Good morning. So
Peter just told them that basically they were responsible for the death of
Christ. Now when they heard this, they were pierced to the heart, and said to
Peter and the rest of the apostles, brethren, what shall we do? Repent, and
each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your
sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. As we will see much
later, it seems that at this point in time they believed that you could not
receive the baptism of the Holy Spirit without first being baptized in water.
It appears that that idea did not change until chapter 10 after God baptized
Cornelius and his family in the Holy Spirit before they were water baptized.
Now lest someone think that this was just for the people in the first century
Peter then says, for the promise (of the Father - baptism in the Holy Spirit)
is for you and your children and for all who are far off, as many as the Lord
our God will call to Himself. That means us! And with many other words he
solemnly testified and kept on exhorting them, saying, be saved from this
perverse generation! So then, those who had received his words were baptized;
and that day there were added about 3000 souls. Notice that they were first
water baptized. It does not say whether or not they received the baptism in the
Holy Spirit after that. They were continually devoting themselves to the
apostles’ teaching, to fellowship, to the breaking of bread, and to prayer.
Father help this to be a beautiful day for the reader and his/her family. Help
them to come closer together to each other and to You.
Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me
Good morning. Paul then gives a list of a lot of things that he has gone through as an apostle. I do not write these things to shame you, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For if you were to have countless tutors in Christ, yet you would not have many fathers, for in Christ Jesus I became your father through the gospel. There could be many people that you listen to either in church or through the Internet or other means; but there was only one person (as a general rule it was a person) that lead you to Christ. Therefore I exhort you, be imitators of me. He was saying that just like a child imitates his or her father, they were to imitate him. He says that again seven chapters later. Since it is easy to forget some things about people we have not seen in a while, Paul says that he sent Timothy to them to remind them of his ways which are in Christ, just as he taught everywhere in every church. Some have become arrogant, as though I were not coming to you. I shall find ou...
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